Bosch BCH7PETGB Review - Vacuuming Review

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Pick up the Bosch BCH7PETGB and the first thing you’ll notice is its super-lightweight feel and ease of manoeuvrability – despite its more robust “upright” looks. It weighs a smidge over 2.8kg complete with tubes and floor head, making it one of the lightest stick cleaners we’ve ever used.

It glided over carpet, rugs and a mix of hard floor like a boss, and the flexible neck on the floor head makes it highly manoeuvrable. Transportation through different rooms and travelling up and down the staircase was a breeze, too.

Note that the clip that keeps the floor head and body at right angles to one another is a bit weak though, so when you pick it up the head flops and hangs down like a moody teenager. Not a biggie.

The first mission for the Bosch was our carpet and edge test, where a generous mix of talc and carpet refresher powder was sprinkled over deep red carpet, right up close and personal to the skirting board. On turbo mode, a slow pass forward over the area picked up pretty much everything. The edge was completely cleared and only a tiny amount of talc residue was left on very close inspection, deep within the carpet. Another pass and the Bosch had dealt with that too. An excellent result.

Over hard flooring, the Bosch felt even lighter and moved around with ease. Vacuuming a pile of spilt, dry oats gave us 95% pick-up in one pass. A couple more over the area and the pile was cleared – another solid result, if not perfect.

Switching to the mid-power mode meant a couple of passes over the area were required to pick up the oats, but the Bosch upright never flicked out debris or brushed it into a pile. On the lowest power setting, the oats mostly remained on the floor, although light dust and pet hair was collected.

The Bosch isn’t the quietest cordless cleaner we’ve used at 82dB on turbo mode, but that does drop a few decibels on the mid-power setting. The excellent filtration does a great job of damping high-speed motor noise, so the overall sound is a powerful roar rather than an ear-piercing squeal. So while it isn’t the quietest vacuum, the noise it emits isn’t going to drive you mad.

Next up we unclipped the main floor head, attached the hose and used the Bosch as a mobile cleaner for our twirly carpeted staircase. You can’t escape the fact that is a much more involved operation than it would be with a simple stick cleaner – and items such as the hose, tools and strap will need storing somewhere. With the strap over the shoulder, the carried weight is near-negligible – although it did tend to twist around slightly.

We used the upholstery nozzle attached to the hose and were able to move up and down the stairs easily. Cleaning was solid on the highest power setting and the tool did a decent job – although we can’t help thinking that a small powered tool would have been even better; at this price, it’s a notable omission.

If you have animals and an abundance of pet hair around the home, then the Bosch could be just the remedy. The ProAnimal head doesn’t offer anything obviously unique but its brush bar pulled in pet hairs with ease and the high-power setting ensured most of them ended up in the bin.

The red rug in our living room is the main hangout of our canine assistants, collecting a generous amount of dog hair deep within the fibres. A few passes over with the Bosch and the rug looked exceptionally clean, with not single hair remaining.

The Bosch continued to impress as it sashayed with ridiculous ease over parquet flooring, ceramic tiles and laminates. Few stick cleaners feel quite so well balanced in the hand.

Bin emptying is similarly efficient, with the fully removable unit depositing all its contents – including pet hair – without us having to dig in with our fingers. This is in no small part due to the fact that you have to remove the whole filter assembly first, leaving you a plain bin to empty.

Make sure you are over the bin before dismantling, however. Giving the filter a “flick” with the Bosch’s rotation clean system each empty will keep it running better for longer, extending the duration between full filter washes.

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Richard has more than 20 years experience as a technology journalist, writing and editing on a vast number of publications. He currently serves as consultant editor to the UK's electrical retailer's a…

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